Stolen

by Evangeline Anderson

  “That was me!” Drace exclaimed. “I heard her voice too, telling me that someone needed my help right before I ran into you,” he told Penny.

  “I’m in your debt, Brother.” V’rex offered the Havoc a warrior’s clasp with the arm that wasn’t curled protectively around Penny’s shoulders.

  “Not at all,” Drace protested, taking the offered arm. “If anything, we’re even. Remember the life-debt I owed you for saving my ass in the jungle on Yown Alpha?”

  “The debt is more than paid,” V’rex agreed. “But still, when I think how that lowlife bastard tried to hurt Penelope…”

  “The Goddess told me she was sending help and that the Glorious Leader would get exactly what he deserved,” Penny said quickly, since red flames were beginning to dance in V’rex’s pale gold eyes.

  “Well, he certainly did.” Sylvan peered again at the monitor. “And you say he’ll be stuck like that forever?” he asked, Granny Two-two. “Frozen in time, as it were, because of the anomaly?”

  “Yes, indeed.” She nodded vigorously which caused her second head to shout out a curse. “Time sucks come and go but this one ‘ent moving. It’s been here nigh on seventy cycles and hasn’t moved so much as a micron.”

  “Well…then I guess we have no choice but to leave the Eye of Ten’gu here, though I wish we could have brought it back to the Mother Ship and destroyed it.” Sylvan sighed and shook his head.

  “It’s safe enough,” Granny Two-two assured him. “Safe in the shadow of the ship—‘ent nothing going to get to it there.”

  “I hope you’re right.” Sylvan had been bending over, examining the monitor. “Well, I guess we’d best be getting home.” He looked at Penny and V’rex. “Have the two of you decided if you’re coming with us back to the Mother Ship or not?”

  “Oh, well…” Penny began, looking up at her new mate uncertainly.

  “We’ll come,” he said. “But we might need to take a wormhole instead of folding space. If…” He cleared his throat and looked significantly at Sylvan. “If you know what I mean.”

  “Ah, of course.” Sylvan nodded, and Penny suddenly remembered that pregnant women couldn’t safely fold space. She felt her cheeks heat with a blush. Of course, she didn’t know if she was pregnant or not, but it was probably better not to take a risk.

  “We’ll see you at the Mother Ship soon,” V’rex promised. “Though we might take a side route and pass by Rageron on the way.” He smiled at his two uncles, who had accompanied him and Sylvan to the Service Room. “I seem to have a lot of catching up to do.”

  Penny felt a warm glow in her heart as she watched her mate connect with his long-lost kin. True, her mission hadn’t exactly gone as planned, but everything had worked out in the end. She was ending her time in the Yown System without the distinction of bringing home the Eye of Ten’gu but with a new mate she would love and cherish forever.

  And it was all because she had been Stolen out of her own life and put on a course she never would have picked for herself by the Goddess herself.

  Chapter 118

  “Okay, I’ve gotten all of the nanites out of your system,” Liv said, bustling into the Med Center room where Penny was sitting. After a lovely week-long trip to Rageron, she and V’rex were aboard the Mother Ship and she was getting a much-needed physical.

  “See, doll? I told you she could do it.” Kat, who was there for moral support, squeezed Penny’s hand.

  “Oh, thank you!” Penny breathed a sigh of relief. Even though the Glorious Leader was now floating in a puddle of space poo and couldn’t spy on her anymore, she still didn’t like the idea of his microscopic nanites infesting her system.

  “So that’s the good news,” Liv said briskly. “But I’m afraid it still won’t stop you from producing the nectar.”

  “It won’t? Why not?” Penny exclaimed. It wasn’t that the nectar was that bothersome, she supposed, and V’rex certainly had no problem sucking it out of her breasts whenever they made love—or anytime she asked for help, for that matter. But it was irritating to be dripping all the time and she’d thought that ridding her body of the nanites would certainly take care of the nectar problem.

  Apparently not, though.

  “I’m afraid that the fertility herbs and chemicals you were exposed to have convinced your body you’re lactating,” Liv explained. “They’ve kind of, uh, turned on a switch inside your breasts, if that makes any sense.”

  “Well, isn’t there any way to turn it off again?” Penny asked desperately. Was she going to go through her whole life with her breasts repeatedly filling up with nectar?

  “Actually, there is,” Liv said brightly. “You need to carry a baby to term and give birth. That will switch your body over from nectar production to milk production. And after you wean the baby, your breasts ought to go back to normal.”

  “So I have to get pregnant in order to stop the nectar?” Penny exclaimed.

  “No, I didn’t say that,” Liv said gently. “I said you have to carry a baby—or in your case babies—to term.”

  “What?” Penny shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

  “Well, remember the blood I drew from you?” Liv asked. “I hope you don’t mind, but I took the liberty of running a few extra tests and, well…” She held out her hand, palm up, and opened her fingers. Lying there were three perfect little flowers—two blue and one pink.

  “Twin boys!” Kat breathed. “Oh, Penny—you’re going to have twin boys and a little girl to go with them!”

  “Oh my goodness!” Penny took the three little flowers carefully from Liv’s palm. “But…but multiple births don’t run in my family,” she protested, looking up at the doctor. “Nobody ever even has twins, let alone more.”

  Liv fixed her with a stern look.

  “Considering all the fertility hormones and drugs you have running around in your system, it’s a wonder you’re not carrying quintuplets! Thank the Goddess for small mercies.”

  “Oh, my…” Penny shook her head. “I don’t…don’t know what to say. Three all at once!”

  “Look, you’re in shock right now, doll, but everything is going to be fine.” Kat squeezed her hand again. “Trust me—I know all about having multiples. Sometimes you want to pull your hair out, but you’re going to make it—you’ll see.”

  “Wait until I tell V’rex,” Penny murmured. She still couldn’t wrap her head around what was happening.

  “Tell me what, sweetheart?” Just then the big Hybrid appeared in the exam room door. “Hope you don’t mind, ladies,” he said to Kat and Liv. “I felt like something was wrong with my mate so I came to see what it was.” He looked at Penny. “Are you all right?”

  “Liv ran a pregnancy exam on me,” Penny blurted, not sure what else to say.

  “And?” V’rex looked at her, his face hopeful. “Is it a boy or a girl?”

  Mutely, Penny held out her hand with the three perfect flowers.

  V’rex’s pale gold eyes went wide and he sank to his knees in front of Penny.

  “Is this real?” he asked, his voice going hoarse. “Not a joke?”

  “We never joke about babies,” Liv told him gently. “You’re going to be a father.”

  “Times three!” Kat exclaimed.

  “Goddess…” The big Hybrid’s voice was so hoarse now that Penny dragged her gaze from the three little flowers to his face. To her surprise, she saw tears in his eyes.

  “Oh, honey!” she exclaimed. “Are you that upset?”

  “Upset?” V’rex asked in a choked voice. “Penelope, we’re blessed! The Goddess must trust me after all.”

  “Trust you? What do you mean?” Penny frowned in confusion.

  “I just thought…” He shook his head. “You know the kind of childhood I had—the kind of Sire who raised me. And I was…was so afraid that with a father like that, I could never be a good father myself. I’ve been fearful all this time that even with the fertility drugs you were taking, the Goddess wouldn’t le
t you conceive because she wouldn’t trust me to do right by any children we might have.”

  “Oh, honey…” Penny put a hand on his broad shoulder. “I didn’t even know you were feeling that way. Why did you hide it from me?”

  “I was ashamed.” V’rex looked down. “All these years, I’ve been so fucking ashamed of the Kru’ell One part of my heritage and I felt like I didn’t deserve this.” He touched the small flowers reverently with the tips of his fingers. “But maybe the Goddess thinks otherwise.”

  “Of course she does—you’re going to make a wonderful father!” Penny kissed him on the cheek. “Absolutely amazing.”

  “And you’re going to make a wonderful mother.” He grinned at her suddenly. “Remember that conversation you had with Lady Bright Coat when we were having dinner with her and Chieftain Swift Tail and she said she couldn’t wait to have a litter?”

  Penny giggled.

  “How could I forget? And then she asked if you and I had had a litter yet! And I told her that wasn’t how it worked with us ‘flat-faces.’”

  “I think it’s time we gave her and Swift Tail a call,” V’rex said gravely. “Let her know you’re having a litter after all.” He grinned. “Three babies! Two sons and a daughter—truly we are blessed!”

  “The Goddess is good,” Liv murmured, smiling at them both. “Now, we’ll want to monitor you closely. The Kindred are used to multiple births but we always like to keep an eye on—”

  “Doctor Liv! Doctor Liv!” a human nurse with her blue-streaked hair in a ponytail looked into the exam room excitedly. “I’m so sorry to bother you when you’re with a patient,” she exclaimed. “But you’re the only doctor on the floor and I have two new patients who can’t wait.”

  “What? Who is it?” Liv frowned.

  “Commander Rive and his wife, Y’lla,” the nurse said excitedly. “Apparently the anomaly they were stuck in finally let them go. They just got back from the Yown System and they both need looking over.”

  “Oh my!” Liv put a hand to her heart. “Will you excuse me, please?” she said to Penny and V’rex. “I really need to see them.”

  “Oh, I want to come see them too, as soon as you’re finished with them,” Penny exclaimed. “I’m so glad they got home safely! I was afraid they’d be stuck in that time-suck forever!”

  “Those were the shipmates you traveled to the Yown System with in the first place?” V’rex guessed, raising his eyebrows.

  Penny nodded. “They got stuck in a kind of, uh, awkward position. I’m just so glad they got free. But—oh!” She put a hand to her mouth, her eyes going wide.

  “What? What is it, doll?” Kat asked, looking concerned.

  “Yes, what’s wrong, sweetheart? Did you feel one of the babies move?” V’rex put a hand on her belly gently, a worried look on his face.

  Penny shook her head.

  “No, it’s too early for that yet—I only just found out I’m pregnant. I had an awful thought, though.”

  “What is it?” Kat asked at the same time V’rex demanded,

  “What?”

  “Well, if the time bubble that had caught Commander Rive and Y’lla has moved on, you don’t suppose the anomaly that’s holding the Glorious Leader and the Eye of Ten’gu has moved too, do you?” Penny asked, looking at V’rex.

  “No, I really doubt it.” He shook his head decisively. “It’s a super-slow bubble—remember? It’s not going anywhere for the next several millennia.”

  “I hope you’re right.” Penny bit her lip. “I hated that we just had to leave the Eye there. It was so obviously evil. And what if it wakes up?”

  “It can’t, sweetheart—it’s stuck in the shadow of the Hell’s Gate Station, remember?” V’rex reminded her. “Because of the way the station orbits around the Yown System’s sun, one side of it is always in light and the other is always in shadow. It’s tidally locked—there’s no way a single ray of sunshine can touch the Eye. Believe me, it’s safe.”

  “Of course. Thank you, V’rex.” Penny nodded. “You’re right, of course. There’s no way it could wake up—not without any direct sunlight to wake it.”

  “Stop thinking about the Eye, anyway,” V’rex told her. “It’s old news. Right now, we have a family to plan for. Two boys and a girl. And we’ll teach all of them to barter and pirate and pick pockets!”

  He was grinning as he said it and Penny gave him a little shove.

  “V’rex! You’ll make Kat think you’re serious and you want to raise our kids as criminals!”

  “Your friend knows I’m joking.” V’rex gathered her into his arms and rose suddenly, lifting Penny into the air and cradling her close to his broad chest. “What I’m not joking about, little girl, is taking very good care of you,” he rumbled, pressing a soft kiss to the top of her head. “Come on now—let’s go home.”

  Penny giggled and asked Kat to tell Commander Rive and Y’lla that she would check on them later. She had an idea of exactly how V’rex wanted to “take care” of her and she thought her old shipmates would understand.

  But even as the big Hybrid carried her away in his arms, she had a tiny, niggling worry left in the back of her mind. Was the Eye of Ten’gu still safely hidden in the shadows of the Hell’s Gate station? Had the trouble and destruction it had been prophesied to bring truly been averted?

  Surely it has, Penny told herself. Stop worrying about it now—don’t be silly.

  And she did her best to put it out of her mind as she snuggled against V’rex and breathed in his warm scent, dreaming of their family-to-be.

  Epilogue

  Somewhere in the cold and distant space of the Yown System, an evil finger was reaching. The Cruel Father's plans had been disrupted…but not completely destroyed. Though the Eye of his Scion floated in the blackness beneath the space station where no sun shone, the Cruel Father knew how to proceed.

  Searching through the space debris which always accumulate around any spaceport, he found a bright, shiny silver door, blown from a space craft a hundred cycles before. His long finger, reaching from another universe, curled around the door and maneuvered it into position to catch the rays of the Yown System's yellow dwarf sun.

  As a ray of brilliant sunlight struck the shiny silver surface, the finger tilted it carefully until it reflected the ray into the shadows, gathered like bats beneath the Hell's Gate Station. And just as the Cruel Father had planned, the single ray of sun pierced the darkness and struck its target—the Eye of Ten'gu.

  The Eye shivered and then the gold and blue facade cracked and split open. Beneath its beautiful surface, a new eye was now visible—a blood-red eye, filled with malice and wreathed in flames.

  "Father," came a voice as cold as space itself. "Tell me your bidding."

  Deep in the shadows of his universe, the Cruel Father smiled.

  His Scion had awakened and there would be all Seven Hells to pay.

  The End?

  Of course not!

  There’s always more Kindred to come!

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  Hugs and Happy Reading to you all!

  Evangeline, October 2020

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